


AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



ENOSINIAN SOCIETY 



(g®SjlJ3mil35I,>^^B5r OOMLIECSHg IDo ®- 



JULTT 4, 1837, 



EDGAR SNOWDEN. 



PUBLISHED AT THE RECIUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 



WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED BY PETER FORCE. 
1837. 




Glass. 
Book. 



T\TJ 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



ENOSINIAN SOCIETY 



©©aWIMlJJLaSS" OOIM&^C&Iis, lE)a o. 



JXJX.7 4, 1837, 



EDGAR SNOWDEN. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OP THE SOCIETY. 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY PETER FORCE. 
1837. 




CORRESPONDENCE. 



College Hill, July 5, 1837. 

Dear Sir : At a called meeting of the Enosinian Society held this day, 
the following Resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

1. Resolved, That we tender Mr. Snowden our sincere thanks for the 
eloquent, appropriate, and interesting Address delivered before us on the 
4th instant. 

2. Resolved, That Mr. Snowden be requested to furnish a copy of his 
Oration for publication. 

3. Resolved, That the Corresponding Secretary be directed to communi. 
cate the above to Mr. Snowden. 

In communicating to you the foregoing Resolutions, allow me, in the name 
of the Society, and personally, to express a hope that their request will be 
complied with. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. N. SCHOOLFIELD, 

Corres. Sec. Enosinian Society. 
To Edgar Snowden, Esq. 



Alexandria, D. C, July 11, 1837. 
Dear Sir : I have received the Resolutions of the Enosinian Society in 
relation to the Address which I delivered on the 4tli instant, and beg you to 
return my acknowledgments to the Society for the favorable opinion therein 



If the publication of the Address is desired by the Society, the manuscript 
is at their disposal, which will be handed to you by Professor Sherwood. 

Please accept for yourself and for the members of the Society the good 
wishes and respects of 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

EDGAR SNOWDEN. 

To J. N. ScHooLFiELD, Esq., 

Corres. Sec. Enosinian Society. 



ADDRESS. 



The anniversary of a day illustrious in our annals, and 
memorable in the history of the world, is well and properly 
observed as a National Festival, and its recurrence hailed as a 
season of rejoicing, and a time for the generous indulgence of 
patriotic feelings. Singular and favored in this, as in many 
other respects, we commemorate the epoch at which we not 
only assumed a name among the nations of the earth, as a 
separate and independent People, but became invested, also, 
at the same time, with the highest and best prerogatives of free- 
dom known and acknowledged by our race. Other countries 
have passed through gradual and often slow and protracted im- 
provements in their progress from the darkness of Despotism to 
the glorious light of Liberty; but we, more fortunate in our 
destiny, stepped forth boldly and at once from Colonial vassal- 
age into the full and broad blaze of the meridian sun of National 
Independence ; and our young eagle, when he first plumed his 
wings for flight, gazed as fixedly and with as unquailing an eye 
upon its dazzling splendor, as he now does, after sixty-one years 
have given strength to his pinions and power to his sight. And, 
however the contrary may be the case with individuals, and for 
the most part with communities, a long and tedious experience 
of all the phases of government, was, at least, not necessary 
with tis, to prepare for the exercise or the enjoyment of the 
rights we assejted and acquired. Our career was commenced 



with nothing to contaminate the institutions established, which, 
from the first, with all the regularity and harmony of the most 
ingenious mechanism, moved as they were wisely fashioned and 
directed, uninjured by that rust of ages which has settled upon, 
defiled, and deranged, in a greater or less degree, even the 
constitutional governments of the Old World. 

For this prosperous commencement, it is our duty, and cer- 
tainly one which 1 discharge with a cheerfulness proportionate 
to the obligation, to give the meed of praise to the settlers of 
the country and the original founders of the States. They 
brought with them all those noble sentiments in relation to pub- 
lic duties, private rights, and the limitations of power, which 
have distinguished the people of England from an early day, 
and planting the precious seed of well-ordered Liberty in the 
virgin soil of America, it took root, and under their care and 
cultivation sprang up fairer and more vigorously and healthy 
than it appeared where heretofore had been its exclusive place 
of growth. The first children who were born here were taught 
by their sires the great truths of Civil Liberty ; and not only 
listened to the recital of the rights of free-born citizens secured 
in Magna Charta, but such as the instructers themselves had 
fought and bled to establish during the horrors of recent civil 
wars in their native country, and for the maintenance of which 
many of them endured a voluntary exile. Deeply imbued 
with the lessons of wisdom which were so eloquently taught by 
some of the finest writers of the language, their minds impres- 
sed with the political truths which, acted upon, gave security to 
their persons and property ; under such teaching they became 
indoctrinated with the principles of Hampden, and Sidney, and 
Russell ; and these principles, when carried out, ultimately pro- 
duced the conviction that " Resistance to Tyranny was obe- 
dience to God." Nor were the reason and judgment alone in- 
fluenced. The sublimest strains of poetry touched the hearts 
and excited the enthusiasm of those, who, in their mein and de- 



portment, seemed made of sterner stuff than to be thus moved ; 
and when Milton "woke to ecstasy the Hving lyre," thousands 
of bosoms beat high and quick in response to his noble strains. 
These were the men who laid deep and broad the foundations 
upon which their descendants and our ancestors reared the 
glorious fabric of American Constitutional Liberty. These 
were the men, who, with an indomitable will and unwavering 
perseverance not only conquered the wilderness, but enforced 
the progress of Liberty with the advance of Civilization. 
Anglo-Saxon blood and sentiments carried them through the 
work triumphantly. Happy for us that the settlement of 
our country was not effected by adventurers in quest of mere 
gold, or dissolute courtiers driven from the presence of their 
master, from weariness of their excesses, but rather by Patriots 
who loved virtue for its own sake, and panted after freedom 
though they should have to enjoy it in the forests of an un- 
known land ! Happy for us that the billows of the vast At- 
lantic rolled between the shores that were left and those v/hich 
were sought ; that in leaving behind them the comforts of 
life and the associations of early days, they parted with all 
that could have embarrassed the simplicity of their new situa- 
tion ; that crowns and sceptres, and stars and garters, and 
all the paraphernalia of royalty, were yielded, not only with- 
out reluctance, but with joy and satisfaction, as encumbrances 
in the great work for which they were assigned 1 Nor let 
us stop here. If the benignant smiles of Providence were 
upon this land, in these respects, we have no less cause for 
thankfulness in the fact, that the settlers were not wild and 
reckless men, tired of the restraints of law and order, who came 
here to Uve in what has been called the freedom of nature, but 
which is, in reality, the dominion of the passions. Nor were 
they visionary theorists, who hoped in the new continent to 
originate and propagate schemes and plans which were 

" To free the world from every guilt and sharao, 
" And biing its primal glories back again." 



Nothing of all this. Their ideas, though elevated, were plain 
and practical. They thought only of establishing here for the 
interests and happiness of themselves and their posterity, those 
admirable principles which at home they saw unfortunately 
entangled with much that was false and base. They in- 
dulged in no day dreams of a state of society allowing unlimited 
license to its members. If they possessed little of that spirit 
which acknowledged the " divine right" of rulers, and tamely 
acquiesced in demands which required " passive obedience and 
non-resistance," they had still less of the factious, disorganizing 
views of modern demagogues, who pursue shadows and phan- 
toms, leaving substance and reality unsought for and far behind. 
Hence, throughout their whole history, we see a steady aim in 
all their efforts to define, regulate, and secure Liberty, rather 
than to give it unbounded privileges, calculated in the end to 
weaken and destroy its effects instead of making them lasting 
and permanent. Under the salutary restraints of Laws, often 
harsh and severe in their enactments, they sought to curb the 
wills and passions of men, showing at the outset that the com- 
munities they organized were designed to be solid and stable, 
resting upon the strongest basis — mutual protection— confi- 
dence — and order. The People were early impressed with a 
sense of the necessity of a profound obedience to the Laws, 
and of consequence, acquired full confidence in their ability to 
remedy all abuses, by a simple change of the laws, without 
violence or disorder. It has been a characteristic of the Ame- 
rican People during the different changes produced in their 
political condition by time and circumstances, from the landing 
of the Pilgrims on the Rock of Plymouth, and the settlement 
at Jamestown, down to the adoption of the matchless Consti- 
tution under which we now live, and the laws passed in pur- 
suance thereof, to have ever willingly and cheerfully yielded 
something of that natural liberty, the possession of which is 
sometimes rashly sought for, but never obtained, for the sake of 



having firmly secured the great essentials necessary to the 
safety of their best and dearest rights. Nor, I may pause here 
to add, does this militate against the most exalted sense of per- 
sonal independence, and the broadest ideas of rational liberty. 
It is a most false and pernicious doctrine which maintains that 
true Liberty can exist unregulated by Law. There may be a 
spurious, bastard Liberty, hailed by the ignorant and vicious, 
which allows crimes to be committed in its name, and suffers its 
votaries, flushed and drunk with excesses, to revel in low en- 
joyments, and delight themselves with levelling to their own 
standard all of men and things to which they cannot attain. 
But the freedom of which we justly and proudly boast, is far 
different from this. It is a freedom which, while it recognizes 
all the great truths proper to be observed in a Representative 
Republic, where life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness are secured to every citizen, yet, prevents wrong and injury, 
protects the weak and innocent, rewards virtue, and punishes 
vice. It is a freedom which, while it permits all men to be equal 
under the Law, suffers no man to be above or beyond the Law. 

With these principles, the American People started on their 
onward career, and these, practically acted upon, led to that 
glorious event which we this day celebrate, with hearts swelling 
with praise to the Author of all Good, for his great mercies to 
us a nation ! 

Upon such an occasion, I know of no themes more grateful 
than those to which we have always been accustomed on the 
Anniversary of our National Independence. To tell of the 
wrongs of our fathers — of their patient forbearance — of their 
noble resolution, at last, to resist their oppressors — of their ar- 
duous struggle — of their glorious triumph — is an appropriate 
duty on a day consecrated to the recollection of these events. 
And should we turn from their contemplation because we are 
familiar with them, and because they have been often repeated ? 
Never, never, can they be too fondly dwelt on, or too often re- 
2 



10 

hearsed. Shall our ears, shall the ears of our children, ever 
grow dull and insensible to the recital of a story than which 
History presents none more interesting and exciting in all its 
details — none more abounding in the sublimest examples of 
patriotism and virtue ? Shall we cease ever to remember and 
fondly to linger at the remembrance of the valor, the self-devo- 
tion, the perseverance of the Heroes of the Revolution ? Shall 
we ever fail properly to appreciate the services of the Sages of 
the Revolution ? Surely not, whilst we are enjoying in boun- 
teous profusion the rich blessings flowing from their labors. 
Ungrateful, indeed, would be the American People, did they 
not wear in their " heart of hearts" a constant, abiding, ever 
present, reverential attachment for the names and memories of 
those who achieved the Independence and established the 
Union of these States. 

To exhibit this gratitude, however, in its most sincere and 
appropriate form, and to prove our sense of the heavy obliga- 
tions under which we rest, as descendants of men who perilled 
all for us, is not merely to offer the incense of praise to the 
dead, or enrich by our bounty the few of those days that sur- 
vive. Lip service is not the most acceptable or becoming 
worship at our country's altars. We do not approach these 
Holy Temples on days consecrated in our History, for vain 
show and parade. Panegyric would be idle, and Eulogium 
senseless, on such occasions, were they not directed to high and 
noble purposes, to useful and important objects. No American 
citizen ought to pass these hours without, from the reflections 
they must call up, resolving to be henceforth more and more 
devoted to his country's honor, prosperity, and happiness. We 
best show what we feel when we act, and can only truly mani- 
fest our zeal and devotion to the cause which our fathers es- 
poused, by resolving to maintain in all their pristine vigor the 
institutions they established. 

Omitting then, reluctantly, what neither the time nor the 



11 

proper limits of this address will permit to be discussed, and 
foregoing all the pleasure which it might afford us to take up 
the story of our Revolution, and go through its most spirit- 
stirring passages, we must be content with referring briefly to 
some of those causes which now seem most likely to preserve 
the precious inheritance which has been bequeathed to us, and 
which will continue most materially to aid in the preservation 
of the Public Liberty. We have received in the Union and 
Independence of these States — in the Constitution and form of 
Government we possess^and in the great principles upon which 
they are all built up, a legacy richer than was ever before com- 
mitted to human keeping. Upon the manner in which we ex- 
ercise the sacred trust confided to our care, all depends. 

I. The chief in importance among the causes of which I 
have just spoken, is undoubtedly the continued prevalence of 
those sentiments already referred to, originally introduced by 
the settlers of the country, and sedulously cultivated by the 
men of the Revolution and the framers of the Constitution — 
sentiments which favor regulated liberty and obedience to the 
laws. Our Government has been called " an experiment." If 
the mass of the people be saturated with true and constitutional 
principles, and just and correct ideas of their own rights and 
obligations, it need be considered "an experiment" no longer. 
Then, we may " defy a world in arms," and write " Esto per- 
petua'' under the emblem of the Union and Sovereignty of the 
States. To effect a consummation so devoutly to be wished 
for, all our energies are required. But no people on earth are 
more exposed to deception and error than our own ; and nothing 
but their native good sense, and the opinions they have in- 
herited, have preserved them hitherto from the deceits, tempta- 
tions, and seductions which are constantly thrown out to allure 
them from the path of their fathers. The blessings which we 
enjoy, and the privileges which we value as above all price, are 
liable to be abused to the injury of the body politic. Advan- 



12 

tage may be taken of the very genius of our institutions which 
favors the largest Hberty to the largest number, to create artifi- 
cial distinctions in society, and by separating classes, and form- 
ing divisions, to crush the few beneath the ponderous weight of 
the many; freedom of thought and of speech may be converted 
into a power of sedition and mischief; the suffrages of free 
citizens may be perverted to votes of ostracism against virtue 
and honesty ; the majesty of the People may be invoked to 
trample upon the laws instead of being exerted in their defence. 
Fortunately, for upwards of half a century, with rare excep- 
tions, serving only to show the horrors and dangers of the ex- 
amples, we have escaped from all the snares which factious 
pretenders or misguided men have laid for our destruction. No 
State has yet " shot madly from its sphere" to perplex and 
alarm the nation : no portion of the community has yet been 
persuaded formally to renounce its allegiance to good order and 
its subjection to the laws. Wherever and whenever momentary 
excesses or outbreaks of violence have occurred, reason has 
soon resumed its sway, and they have been afterwards frowned 
on and discountenanced even by those who at first were dis- 
posed to excuse or palliate such offences. To foster and en- 
courage this spirit should be our constant aim. Whatever may 
be the views of foreign philanthropists or native-born regenera- 
tors, whose heads are teeming with plans for the improvement of 
mankind, we, at least, ought to be content with our situation. 
Bacon, in one of his Essays, has wisely remarked that "it is 
" good not to try experiments in States, except the necessity be 
" urgent or the utility evident ; and well to beware that it be 
" the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the de- 
" sire of change that pretendeth the reformation." We have 
advanced, as we believe, before the rest of mankind in the 
science of government ; let the other nations of the earth come 
up to us, before we leave the place where we now stand, or 
turn aside into new and untried ways to explore a route for 



13 

them to follow. That our civil institutions are perfect, or that 
they may not be susceptible of improvement, is not asserted ; but 
this must be left to time, and to experience, and to ourselves. 
We want imported into our borders none of that feverish, rest- 
less disposition so frequently manifested abroad, and which so 
often engenders habits and views not at all in accordance with 
our American ideas of regulated liberty : we desire none of that 
ultra feeling, which saps and mines the foundations of society in 
order to eifect a slight change in its superstructure. We do 
not see in the course of those who have gone before us, and in 
whose footsteps we are anxious to tread, any such movements. 
If commotion and disorder are necessary elsewhere to effect an 
amelioration of the condition of mankind, we are quite sure 
that they would be useless here for any purposes whatever. 

II. As valuable, however, as are the principles which we 
have just endeavored to inculcate, they must be always ac- 
companied, on the part of the People, by a watchful and 
jealous spirit in relation to their oivn rights. It does not fol- 
low that because we are a peace-loving, law-obeying people, 
we should be craven or recreant. Every feeling of pride — 
every sentiment of honor — every dictate of interest will urge 
to the uniform maintenance of all our legal privileges. It is 
our duty to distrust Power — to examine its operations — to 
mark its progress. Moving silently and unseen, its strides are 
often rapid, prostrating the feeble barriers erected at first to op- 
pose its march. If we neglect, yield to, or assist it, we are 
false to the faith of our fathers. It has strength enough always 
to sustain it, when it is exerted fairly, properly, and constitu- 
tionally. It needs no officious volunteers to swell the number 
of its body-guards, or form a trained and hireling band to do its 
bidding, whether in defending its own forces, or attacking its 
assailants. We have already given it, not a throne for its seat, 
but a fortified and entrenched position, surrounded and guarded 
by constitutional enactments. In its behalf we have already 



14 

done our part ; it remains for us to exercise unceasing vigilance, 
lest the place designed for its security may be used for our in- 
jury ; lest chains and manacles may be forged where we had 
erected the armory of national defence. If, in the exercise of 
the true principles of justice, we are to take care that the few 
are not overpowered by numbers, to the deprivation of their 
rights, we are equally bound to guard against the opposite 
danger. By those who do not impute all wisdom — all virtue — 
all discretion to mere numbers, advice of this nature will not be 
considered unwholesome. Wealth, ambition, and self-interest, 
all have their means to exercise an undue influence over the 
People, and, in some guise or other, they will always be found 
exerting these means to the agrandizement of those who are 
considered fortunate in their possession. If this is true with 
regard to individuals, and in the ordinary pursuits of life, it is 
especially correct when we speak of National and State affairs. 
Our Government is a government of checks and balances — 
each department has its metes and bounds all properly defined, 
and once to pass over them is to throw the whole system into 
derangement and disorder. It is made then a part of the duty 
of every one who loves his country and regards her welfare, con- 
stantly to occupy himself in jealously guarding his own rights 
as well as the rights of each and every division of the Govern- 
ment of his choice. What was enjoined upon the Roman Dic- 
tator on investing "him with supreme authority, our Republic 
commands of her humblest citizen — " ne quid detrimenti Res- 
publica capiat.'^ We have at home and among ourselves, 
enough to call forth all our energies, and keep alive all our ac- 
tivity. We have to see that the Executive does not encroach 
upon the Legislative power ; that neither be directed to the in- 
jury of the People ; that the Judiciary is maintained in its inde- 
pendence; that the States exercise their sovereignty ; and, yet, 
that the Nation is supreme. This is the work before us which 
we are bound to perform, and at which " no man having put his 



15 

hand to the plough can look back." It is a gbeat work, full 
of labor, and requiring an unceasing devotion and ardent pa- 
triotism to its fulfilment. Shall it be said, at last, that we have 
disappointed the hopes of the world ? 

III. In enumerating the causes which will probably most 
conduce to the great end which we have in view, it would be 
unpardonable to overlook or omit to mention the General Dif- 
fusion of Education. Valuable as knowledge is in every 
situation, and useful as its results are to any nation, it can no 
where be so inestimably, and, at the same time, so practically 
important as among us. Elsewhere the rayS of science and 
learning serve to gild and illumine the thrones of monarchs — 
here, they give light and life to every cottage on our mountains 
or in our valleys : elsewhere there is an aristocracy of letters as 
there is of blood — here we disseminate the blessings of educa- 
tion as freely and equally as we do the honors or rewards of our 
pohtical Republic : elsewhere genius and talents are too often 
bought up by power, and the effusions of mind as well as the 
results of literary labor directed by the purchaser — here, they 
must be exerted, unless they are stamped with venality and 
corruption, in the cause of free principles and liberal institu- 
tions ; for with us the fountain of patronage flows from a source 
not accessible to the mere fawners upon birth, place, rank, 
and wealth. Most of the objections that are urged against 
our system of government, are founded upon the idea that the 
People are always uninformed and ignorant. However truly 
this may be urged against other nations, it should not be held 
valid here. We should remove the basis on which these cavil- 
lers have maintained their opinions, and the enemies of popular 
governments will lose the only ground on which they stand, 
and which has even plausibility to give it recommendation. 
It is not, however, to make a theory for ourselves, or to silence 
the arguments of our opponents by demonstrating their fallacy, 
that we are to urge this subject. In advocating the universal dis- 



IG 

semination of knowledge throughout our country, we have other 
and more practical objects in view. We are to contend for its 
necessity and importance, because it is to have a bearing upon 
ourselves — because it is to operate here at home — because it is 
to affect our children and their posterity — because it is to up- 
hold all that we have been taught to be valuable, and all that 
we know to be excellent. Let us talk as we will about the 
political virtue and honesty of the People — about the general 
correctness of public sentiment — and the strong, inherent, na- 
tural sense of right and wrong which exists in every community. 
It is, after all, the education of the People which is to 
preserve their morals — guide their judgments — give weight and 
dignity to their opinions — and clothe their decisions with im- 
partiality and wisdom. Educate the People, and they will 
learn to respect themselves, and to estimate properly the char- 
acters and qualifications of all who appear before them. En- 
hghten them, and they will not only see their own faults and 
imperfections, but be able to judge properly of the pretensions 
of their instructers and leaders. The vice of our day is an 
overweening national confidence, pride, and importance. We 
show this too often in the haughty manner we assume, in our 
bold presumption, and more frequently still in our fretfulness 
and irritability. We writhe under the sarcasms of strangers as if 
every pointed paragraph were an insult, and every sharp jest a 
studied calumny. Long accustomed to the flattery of those 
who are seeking our favor, we have acquired an opinion of our- 
selves which may not be altogether just or correct. It is time 
that we should be disabused. It is time that we should know 
ourselves. The People should despise the impious and disgust- 
ing cant of those who tell them that their voice is the voice of 
God, and that they are as omniscient as they are omnipotent : 
they should frown into silence the demagogues who would per- 
suade them that they can do no wrong. To effect this we 
must educate the People. We shall enable them to do this 



only by giving ihem a knowledge of the history of the world, 
and the experience of mankind ; by teaching them to trace 
effects to causes, and to follow out the motives of men as ex- 
hibited, not in their professions, but in their actions. And the 
education that is desirable, is not partial or limited. To abridge 
or contract it here, would be to destroy its energies and effects. 
It should extend to the bounds of the Republic, and compre- 
hend within the range of its operations every free citizen. It is 
not the phraze of the day to acknowledge a want of confidence in 
the People ; nor, if it were fashionable so to speak, would we ad- 
rait the correctness of the idea when appHed to a virtuous, intelli- 
gent, and educated People : but a good man may distrust, and 
an independent man will express his distrust of a vicious, unin- 
formed, and ignorant community. What has he to expect 
either for himself or for themselves from such ? What reliance 
can he place upon their stability — their integrity — their honor ? 
Can he forget that King Numbers has, in all ages of the world, 
when unregulated, unrestrained, and ignorant, been a tyrant 
and a despot, exercising his sway, amidst anarchy, ruin, and 
bloodshed ; and does he believe that it would be different now, 
and that our nature has changed by the revolutions of Time ? 
No ! He knows that the judgment of the whole Athenian peo- 
ple, which condemned Socrates to death, was as false, and cor- 
rupt, and infamous as the edict of the single Roman Emperor, 
which, in later years, consigned Seneca to an untimely end : He 
knows that the horrors of a popular revolution have absolutely 
surpassed in blackness and enormity all the crimes of any one 
Tyrant of whom we read in the long catalogue of the oppressors 
and destroyers of our race. It is then, because we truly respect 
the People, and ardently desire their moral elevation, that we so 
strenuously urge the spread of knowledge among them. We 
would not minister to their passions or prejudices, but we would 
cultivate their minds and improve their hearts. With us they 
are the law makers and the rulers. Their representatives and 
3 



18 

the objects of liieir choice occupy the posts of distuiction— sit 
in our legislative halls — administer the laws, and regulate the 
affairs of this great nation. Upon them, ultimately, rests the 
responsibility of preserving the Government in its purity and 
their own liberty uninjured. No other people ever had so 
much to perform, and no other people ever required so much 
virtue and intelligence to perform all this well. Can they 
realize our hopes if they grope about in darkness ? Can they 
do what is before them to do, if they are blinded ? No ! Let 
the light of Education shine full upon them, as full of promise 
and • of safety to us in our journeyings through the weary pil- 
grimage of life, as was of old to the chosen people of God, 
that miraculous interposition, which " went before them by day 
" in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way ; and by night in 
" a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night." 

With these general remarks, naturally induced by the oc- 
casion, and however feebly expressed, such as have been given 
with an earnest conviction of their truth, and the importance 
of the object which they are humbly intended to aid, permit me 
now to address myself, particularly, to my young friends, whose 
representative I am, and by whose partiality I have been called 
to speak before this assembly. 

For words of deep wisdom and long experience, you will not 
look to me. From others, whose years and learning entitle 
their counsel and advice to your respectful consideration, you 
properly expect both ; and happy will it be for you all, if, 
guided by their precepts and example, you walk in the way in 
which you should go. To their affectionate exhortations — their 
friendly admonitions, and their salutary counsels, you cannot be 
indifferent; and, in after life, to have treasured them all in your 
memory, and to have made them the rule of your conduct, will 
be your highest gratification. I may be allowed, however, as 
one almost of you and with you, but a short distance removed 
from you in years, and but just started in advance of you in 



19 

life, affectionately to commune with you with a solicitude and 
heartfelt sympathy which no words of mine can express. We 
have drank at the same fountains of learning, and been nurtured 
by the same Alma Mater. Some of the most pleasing associa- 
tions of youth are connected with the scenes with which you are 
daily familiar ; and honored with your confidence and friend- 
ship, my heart yearns towards you as my younger but beloved 
brothers in whose future welfare and prosperity all my feelings 
are interested. Your proper course in life is opened before 
you. As far as the necessary and unavoidable evils inseparable 
from our existence will permit, its " ways are ways of pleasant- 
ness, and all its paths are peace." It is there that I hope, 
hereafter, always to find you, and in that event, future solicitude 
may be ended ; for your success is certain. Your reward will 
be bestowed by your country, your friends, your neighbors ; 
and, what is better still, your own self-approving consciences. 

My young friends, you will commence the duties of active 
life at an important period of your country's history. You are, 
at once, to take your stations among those who are to control 
and direct the temporal destinies of this great nation. In what- 
ever situations you may be placed, however diversified may be 
your pursuits, you will be among those under whose auspices 
the public liberty is to be preserved — the constitutional rights of 
the People maintained, and the just and necessary powers of 
the Government to be asserted. When you leave the Halls of 
Learning, and assume the Toga Virilis, you will be called to 
act the part of Men, whose influence from that moment will 
begin to expand Itself Indefinitely, for weal or for wo. When 
the Roman youth were about to put on the garb of manhood, 
they were conducted to the Forum, and there, in the presence 
of the People, and with imposing ceremonies, almost dedicated 
to their country. If the form and ceremony be wanting with us 
as outward symbols not now necessary, no Ingenuous and pa- 
triotic youth will the less regard the obligations which rests 



20 

nipon him In that event. He then enters into a solemn covenant, 

which he cannot break without dishonor, to be a faithful citizen 
of the Commonwealth, and at the sacrifice of all that is dear, 
he must keep that covenant intact. You and each of you will, 
in a short time, assume all the responsibilities of such a situa- 
tion. It is your part, then, to commence early in forming your 
judgments, and adopting your sentiments on the important sub- 
jects on which you will have to act. Before you adopt them, 
however, examine them well ; see if they are sound and 
correct. If you honestly approve of them, cherish, support, 
and extend them. Stand by them if you believe that they will 
do the state good service. Inquire not if they, or any opinion 
which you may with calmness and reason adopt, be popular : 
that is a word which ought not, at least, to be prominent or 
often used in your vocabulary. I do not ask you to despise or 
reject popularity, because the favorable opinion of our fellow- 
men is always desirable, and in many cases, is a proof of merit ; 
but let, in the words of an English jurist, the popularity which 
you prize be one which seeks you, and not one which you run 
after. If you consent to sacrifice the right for the expedient, 
you lessen your own self-respect, whatever temporary personal 
advantage you may gain, and the sense of degradation will 
far outweigh the^ miserable benefit you may receive. If you 
condescend to be a modern People's man, trimming your sails 
to every breeze, you may find a still lower deep to which you 
may reach : you may find that you can be despised and de- 
nounced by those for whose favor you made shipwreck of your 
characters. As much as you may loathe the menials and slaves 
of great men who cringe and fawn upon the dispensers of their 
bounty, recollect that the same despicable meanness is often ex- 
hibited by the flatterers of the People, and for the same base 
purposes. Be above the arts of a demagogue, which, however 
successful they may sometimes prove, never bring true happi- 
ness and solid enjoyment. What to men in your situation. 



21 

with enlarged understandings, cultivated minds, and patriotic 
feelings, would be the possession of place, or rank, obtained at 
the cost of your own dignity and honor. Be assured, in that 
event, you would not be compensated for the pain, and mortifi- 
cation, and disgust which you would have to endure. If honors 
are not to be secured but at the price of character, let those 
who think them worth the pursuit submit to the forfeit. From 
you better things are expected. You have been taught to look 
to other sources than the distinctions and emoluments of public 
life for your highest consolations and chief enjoyments. The 
studies that you are now pursuing are not only to prepare you 
for the world, and contribute to the eclat of your appearance 
upon the stage of action, but they are to minister to your hap- 
piness always and in every situation — " at hac siudia, adoles- 
centiam alunt, sencctutem oblectant, secundas res ormant, adversis 
perfugium ac solatium prabent f and most of all will they 
delight you in calm and philosophic retirement. Believe 
not that you cannot aid your country, and build up your own 
true fame, without you mingle in the melee of party strife, and 
contend for political power. You can be patriots and honest 
men without being party poHticians. Interested you must 
always be in the success of republican liberty — strenuous 
you cannot fail to be in the support of the true principles of 
our Government ; but you may be all this without attempting 
to clutch the glittering baubles which too often dazzle the sight 
and mislead the judgments of men. I do not ask you to " fling 
away ambition," because an honorable ambition to be useful is 
praiseworthy ; nor should the noble aspirations of genius be 
checked when they are directed to noble ends. But it is not 
an honorable ambition in this country to toil and pant after 
popular rewards, without regard to the means used or the prin- 
ciples involved in the struggle. Better, far better would it be 
for you to remain in comparative obscurity, cultivating the fair, 
delightful plans of peace, than to follow in this respect the ig- 



noble examples too frequently placed before our eyes. And 
even in this retirement, the true distinction and solid honors you 
would gain, would be worth more to you than all the huzzas of 
crowds and the applauses of factions. Pursuing your duties as 
humble private citizens, you will, unconsciously, be gathering 
the love and respect of the People. They will esteem you for 
your independent bearing ; they will confide in you for your 
acknowledged acquirements ; they will cherish you for your 
virtuous and patriotic conduct. The noisy, blustering dema- 
gogue, will fume and fret away his brief hour, and be forgotten, 
whilst the gratitude and affection of your friends and neighbors 
will grow every day stronger and stronger, and be more and 
more widely diffused. How much more real and substantial 
such a fame, than any acquired by the common arts and frauds 
of cunning minds ! Yes, my friends, such a result as this, fol- 
lows from our continued love and attachment for the learning 
we begin to acquire in the freshness of youth, and our prefer- 
ence for the enjoyments derived from a cultivated intellect over 
others with which we are presented. May we not, in view of 
this, adopt and apply to ourselves the language which a refined 
and brilliant vy^riter has placed in the mouth of a scholar — the 
creation of his own fancy, but yet the counterpart of reality : 
" As for our studies, how can we, who have drank of the old 
" stream of Castalia, how can we change them, or ought we so 
" to do ? Are they not our food, our aliment, our solace in sor- 
" row, our sympathizers, our very benefactors in joy ? Take 
" them away from us, and you take away the winds which 
" purify and give motion to the silent currents of our life. 
" Whatever may be the infirmities of our bodies, and the har- 
" assment which will molest the most fortunate, we have our 
" refuge and comforter in the golden-souled and dreaming 
" Plato, and the sententious wisdom of less imaginative philoso- 
" phers. Nor, when we are reminded of our approaching dis- 
'* solution, by thoughts which will sometimes come unbidden 



23 

" upon us, is there a small and inglorious pleasure in the hope 
" that we may meet hereafter in those islands of the blessed, 
" which they dimly dreamed of, but which are opened to us with- 
" out a cloud, or mist, or shadow of uncertainty and doubt, with 
" those bright spirits which we do now converse with so im- 
" perfectly — that we may catch from the very lips of Homer 
" the unclouded gorgeousness of fiction, and from the accents of 
"Archimedes the unadulterated calculations of truth." 



n: 



